Martin Luther and the Ninety-five Theses

Protestant Reformation destroyed the unity of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the early sixteenth century, when a man named Martin Luther documented abuses by the church, in a document called the Ninety-five Theses. He posted this document on the front door of a church in Wittenberg. What he posted wasn't that ground breaking, he mentioned the corruption of the clergy and the "selling of indulgences". These immoral behavior had been taking place for years and people had become numb to it. What scared the church and started revolutionary ideas was Luther's idea about salvation. The church's stance was that salvation had to come through the church, while Luther's idea was that "faith was a free gift of god" and was "not the teaching of the Church, but the Bible only". This idea that salvation can be found anywhere and not just from the church effectly striped the chruch of its authority. It was not Luther's intention, but Kings used this idea to take back lands and taxes that the church claimed and common people began to revolt against corruption within the Church.